1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a cleaning device, and more particularly to a cleaning device for cleaning the residual toner on the toner image carrier in, for example, an electrophotographic copying machine, facsimile or printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in an electrophotographic copying machine, etc., a toner image that is formed on the toner image carrier that comprises a photoreceptor or dielectric member is transferred onto a sheet of paper. When this occurs, however, the toner on the image carrier is not completely transferred and approximately 10% to 20% of the toner remains on the toner image carrier. This residual toner needs to be cleaned off so that it will not cause smudging of the image during the next image formation process.
As a cleaning device to clean residual toner, the device shown in FIG. 6 is conventionally known. In this cleaning device, blade 65 is caused to come into contact with photoreceptor drum 60 from the direction opposite the direction of movement of said photoreceptor drum (arrow d), and the residual toner scraped off by said blade 65 is pushed out, so to speak, to carrier groove 62 by means of vane member 66 that rotates in the direction of arrow e so that the residual toner will be carried outside of casing 61 by means of the rotation of coil 63 mounted in carrier groove 62.
Incidentally, in the conventional cleaning device, the direction of movement of vane member 66 at toner removal area C is the same as the direction of movement of photoreceptor drum 60. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, vane member 66 presses down toner T that was scraped off by the edge of blade 65 and blade 65 itself onto the surface of photoreceptor drum 60. Therefore, this cleaning device not only reduces the efficiency in scraping off toner T but also causes caking of residual toner T. When the toner cakes, it causes various problems, including toner scattering outside casing 61, damage to blade 65 and photoreceptor drum 60, and smudging of the image during the next image formation process.